NASA confirmed this Thursday, January 8, that the Crew-11 crew will return to Earth early due to the illness of one of its members before the first spacewalk of the year. This for the first time in 27 years that the International Space Station is sending a crew early.
Crew-11 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 1, 2025.
At a press conference, the space agency revealed that it plans to determine the crew’s return route in the next 48 hourscanceling the original plan, which provided for the stay of the crew-11 in space until March 2026.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacmannoted that the decision to return the crew to earth was not related to the “preparation for a spacewalk” taken yesterday, and that it was purely a “medical situation”.
Crew-11 took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 1, 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying a Falcon rocket.
The crew, consisting of astronauts of different nationalities, planned to carry out first spacewalk this year to return early.
Independent of Artemis II
During the press conference, Isaacman assured that the Artemis II and Crew-12 missions are “independent companies” and that there is no reason to believe that there is any coincidence that would prevent the launch Artemis II in Window 17 is scheduled for next month.
NASA’s plans for a manned return to space will not be delayed
Isaacman emphasized that despite the medical failure on the International Space Station with the crew of 11, NASA’s plans to return the crew to the lunar space will not be delayed and will continue as planned.
The space agency has another spacewalk planned next January 15 who did not report that he had the medical problems that were reported today.
Two new cosmonauts will be installed in it navigation aid for visiting spacecraft, and will relocate the old ammonia service bridge, a set of flexible hoses that connect parts of the fluid system.
To date, since December 1998, 270 spacewalks have been carried out on the ISS. The longest was in March 2001, when James Voss and Susan Helms spent 8 hours and 56 minutes outside.
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